10 things you need to know today: October 20, 2015

Justin Trudeau leads Canada's Liberals to landslide win, Hillary Clinton rises in post-debate polls, and more

Trudeau wins.
(Image credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

1. Liberal landslide makes Justin Trudeau Canada's next prime minister

Justin Trudeau, son of the late iconic Canadian leader Pierre Trudeau, led Canada's Liberals to an unexpected rout in Monday elections, pushing out Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper after nearly a decade in power. In a stunning revival after the Liberals' worst electoral defeat four years ago, Trudeau's party won 184 of the 338 seats in the next House of Commons. Conservatives previously had 159 seats, but will have just 99 in the next Parliament. The vote was seen as a referendum on Harper's focus on core Conservative issues.

2. Hillary Clinton's poll numbers rise after debate

Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton's support surged by 10 percentage points following the party's first primary debate, according to a Reuters/Ipsos online poll on Monday. Fifty-one percent of 1,003 Democratic respondents said they would vote for Clinton in the 2016 primaries. Twenty-seven percent said they would back her closest rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Clinton's strong debate performance soothed supporters worried her campaign was weakening due to the controversy over her use of a private email server as secretary of state.

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Reuters

3. Ohio delays executions until 2017

The Ohio prisons department on Monday announced that it was delaying all executions until at least 2017. The state is having trouble getting adequate stocks of lethal injection drugs. Eleven inmates had been scheduled to die next year, and another in early 2017, but Gov. John Kasich (R) issued warrants of reprieve pushing them all back. The state's last execution was in January 2014.

The Associated Press

4. Teen claims he hacked into CIA director's AOL email account

The FBI is looking into an anonymous hacker's claim that he gained access to CIA Director John Brennan's private AOL email account and stole several files, U.S. officials said Monday. The documents reportedly include a list of Social Security and phone numbers of senior U.S. national security officers and Brennan's 47-page application for top-secret security clearance. A CIA spokesman said the agency is aware of the reports "and have referred the matter to the appropriate authorities."

New York Post The Washington Post

5. Texas cuts Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood

Texas cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood over undercover videos involving discussions of providing fetal tissue for medical research. State health officials said Monday that the videos, released this summer by an anti-abortion group, indicated Planned Parenthood could not provide services in a "safe, legal, and ethical manner." A day earlier, a federal judge in Louisiana said that the state could not cut off funding without investigating, because investigations in other states "have vindicated Planned Parenthood."

The Associated Press Bloomberg

6. Democratic candidate Jim Webb reportedly considers independent White House bid

Longshot Democratic presidential candidate Jim Webb might run as an independent, Politico reports his campaign said Monday. When all five declared Democratic candidates debated Tuesday on CNN, Webb clocked just 14 minutes and 37 seconds of speaking time. In a CNN/ORC poll released Monday, Webb notched just 1 percent support among voters in the party. The campaign said the former Virginia senator will discuss his potential decision in a Tuesday news conference.

Politico

7. Oscar Pistorius leaves prison for house arrest

Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius was released from a South African prison to continue serving his manslaughter sentence under house arrest. Pistorius had spent a year in prison after being convicted of culpable homicide for fatally shooting his girlfriend, model and law student Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine's Day 2013. The former Olympic athlete said he thought she was an intruder. A lawyer for Steenkamp's family said nothing had changed for them. "Nothing will bring Reeva back," the lawyer said.

CNN

8. News of Oprah's stake sends Weight Watchers stock soaring

Shares of Weight Watchers more than doubled Monday on the news that Oprah Winfrey was buying a 10 percent stake in the dieting company. Winfrey bought 6.4 million shares and was awarded options to buy 3.5 million more, meaning that the stock's surge — to $13.92 per share — increased the value of her Weight Watchers holdings by $70 million.

USA Today

9. Court upholds assault rifle bans

A federal appeals court on Monday upheld assault rifle bans adopted in New York and Connecticut after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. Judge Jose A. Cabranes, writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, said the strict bans, and accompanying prohibitions on large-capacity ammunition magazines, did not violate the Second Amendment, as the states had "tailored the legislation at issue to address these particularly hazardous weapons" used in the Newtown shooting rampage.

The New York Times

10. Netflix to revive Gilmore Girls

Netflix is reviving the popular Warner Bros. series Gilmore Girls, according to media reports published Monday. The streaming video service is working with show creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband, executive producer Daniel Palladino, on the project, which includes four 90-minute movies rather than a new TV series, according to Variety. The original, seven-season series stars Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel are expected to return as the fast-talking mother and daughter, Lorelei and Rory Gilmore.

Variety

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.